Although much of the parking lot on the north side of the school is fenced as part of a construction zone, THS Principal Tatia Shelton said Monday that the work shouldn’t cause parking problems when students return for the start of school Aug. 17.

“We should be back to pretty much normal as far as what we had at the end of the year,” she said. “They’re supposed to return our parking lot on August 17.”

Highlights of the high school renovation and expansion include a new auditorium, band and vocal rooms and a new vocational technical building.

The gymnasium also is being expanded. A larger basketball court is being installed, along with new locker rooms and a wrestling room.

Turner Construction is working on the project, which is part of a $25.3 million bond issue voters OK’d in 2004.

The company also is finishing a new middle school on Washington Street and will be renovating and expanding the elementary school in the coming months.

In January, seventh- and eighth-graders in the junior high will move with fifth- and sixth-graders to the middle school. That will make the elementary school a kindergarten through fourth grade building.

Tonganoxie Junior High, which has been a seventh- through ninth-grade facility, will be incorporated into the high school campus and form a ninth through 12th grade campus.